WORCESTER — A proposal to change English course requirements at Quinsigamond Community College is drawing the wrath of English professors and the faculty union.

President Gail E. Carberry said she wants to align Quinsigamond's required English courses with those of Worcester State University, which many of Quinsigamond's graduates attend. Quinsigamond faculty members, however, claim the proposal sidestepped the usual curriculum process and would dumb-down course work in the name of boosting completion rates, which would in turn qualify the college for more state money under the pay-for-performance funding that started in July.

The controversy stems from a draft strategic plan released Sept. 11 that has led to sometimes bitter exchanges, but some people on both sides hope the work of a new committee could lead to agreement next month.

Students in many fields at Quinsigamond, including everything from dental services to food service management, must take English 101 and English 102. The first, according to the description on the college's website, teaches students "essential writing skills" and includes a research project. The latter uses plays, poems, novels, short stories, epic narratives, personal essays and satire to refine students' reading and writing skills.

According to Ms. Carberry, those courses transfer to Worcester State as English 102 (English Composition II, which includes a research project) and 105 (Introduction to Literature) respectively, with 105 not being a required course. (Quinsigamond's English 100 translates to WSU's 101, English Composition 1, but Quinsigamond rarely uses English 100 as a requirement.)

Dennis Quinn, chairman of Worcester State's English department, said in an email, "We moved away from the literature and writing model (Quinsigamond's 102) a good number of years ago. We are trying to prepare students to write well and effectively in their chosen field of study, so instructors use many different kinds of essays, most cross-disciplinary, but a good number of them with a narrower aim, and some of those are seminal articles in their field."

The fact that Quinsigamond's courses don't align more neatly to Worcester State's came to Ms. Carberry's attention over the last few years as Quinsigamond faculty worked to align math, business and criminal justice curricula with the university, she said in a Sept. 23 open letter to the campus.

She says she brought those concerns to the English department in the 2011-2012 year and said she was told that the faculty was happy with the existing curriculum, which she saw as problematic.

In an interview Tuesday, she said, "The English curriculum has not made any adjustments for students who are … doing a range of different curriculum areas."

Students cannot take a technical report writing course, for instance, until they have fulfilled the first two English requirements. For some program coordinators, that's too many credits out of a two-year degree. Instead, they've waived any technical writing requirement to fit a different course into their program, Ms. Carberry said.

In an email to the T&G, she noted, "We have added a range of new programs in response to student interests and rapidly changing local economic/workforce needs. Yet certain aspects of our curriculum have remained not only unchanged, but also unexamined in the face of all other changing conditions."

Members of Quinsigamond's English department, which is now led by a different coordinator than the one Ms. Carberry said she consulted, tell a different story. They say the administration did not involve them in a curriculum process that should have had its foundation in the department. English department Coordinator Sheila Booth said, "I do think change probably is inevitable," but she added that "We want to make sure that what we're teaching them is what's up to par." She noted that many students go on to private colleges and need to meet standards there.

Margaret Wong, an English professor, said Quinsigamond's English requirements are in line with the majority of the state's other community colleges and sees a different motive for the change, which she claims will "remove rigor" from the English requirements: a new state funding mechanism that, in part, rewards colleges for everyone who completes an English or math class and rewards them for increasing graduation rates. "Removing rigor will also inflate those numbers," Ms. Wong said.

Ms. Carberry, for her part, denied that. She said discussions about the English requirements began before performance-based funding. In terms of rigor, she said, "I don't think it would make courses easier. I think it would end up aligning with Worcester State University."

For now, a committee that includes a member of the English faculty is investigating requirements at other community colleges with higher graduation rates than Quinsigamond's. They are scheduled to report back to a strategic planning subcommittee of Quinsigamond's board of trustees on Nov. 20, and that subcommittee will give a recommendation to the full board on Dec. 4, said Board Chairman Stacey DeBoise Luster.

Kathy Frederickson, the English faculty member who is on the committee comparing English curricula at other community colleges, said in an email that "The freshman composition course sequence here at QCC is typical of what you'd expect first-year college writing classes to offer across the commonwealth and across the nation." She also added that "Any changes to our English curriculum need to originate within the English Department."

The faculty union, the Quinsigamond Community College Professional Association, has been meeting every week since the proposed strategic plan was released.

"I imagine there are some people who think that the president's plan is OK. I can tell you, I have not come across those folks yet," said union president Susan McPherson, who is also part of the English department.

The union has not taken any formal action on the strategic plan, given that it is still a draft, and she said she hopes any plan that evolves from the committee's research at other schools will be acceptable to all concerned.

In the meantime, some students are concerned.

Myles Gaudet, who is taking English 102 and said he loves writing and reading, said he believes the state funding formula is to blame for the proposed changes, and he worries it could spread to other campuses. "The community colleges will just start lowering their academic standards," he said.

Ms. Carberry said she doesn't plan to get rid of any classes. "We would offer what is now our 102 course, but it would be differently numbered, and students might be taking more of our technical writing courses," she said.